In Greece, 'Academic Hostages' Wait Years for Jobs

Photographs by Myrto Papadopoulos, Redux, for The Chronicle

Chara Karagiannopoulou has been waiting three years to take up a job as a lecturer at Panteion U.

By Paul Hockenos

Athens

In the office of Greece's education
minister hangs a list of nearly 800 "academic hostages." It's not
public, but anybody unlucky enough to fall into this category—the
name was coined by some of the captive scholars themselves—may
inquire as to where they stand on it.

Chara Karagiannopoulou is hostage No. 352.

That is how she introduces herself to a Chronicle
reporter at Zonar's, an art-deco cafe in downtown Athens. She's
been